18 Responses

Pretty good list. You hit the nail on the head with everything really. Not sure about Turner Petersen for breakout offensive player, but that’s mostly because none of the other youngish players did a lot to establish themselves. Looking back to the beginning of the season, I would hope either Mario Hull or Taylor Cook would have been the breakout player, but neither guy was on the field enough and/or targetted enough.

It was considered. But for the sake of matching awards I went with a player not previously mentioned last season. Hard to be a breakout player (Willson and McDonald were my 2010 choices) consecutive years.

Comment has been clarified: Sam McGuffie should be biggest disappointment for his production based off the previous year (and expectations to be the team’s top offensive weapon) and the fact he was hurt for the final month of the season. A strong case could also be made for Jeremy Eddington after his 10-TD performance in 2010.

Willson didn’t have a great year – his numbers were better last year. But both he and McDonald suffered from the quarterback situation (which was due a lot to the OL woes). McDonald and Willson had too many drops IMO.

I’d would have put Nwoso as the defensive MVP. He had as many touchdowns as Eddington and McGuffie. Solomon had moments but Nwoso and Allen were the defensive standouts.

I guess it qualifies as “on the field” but it was to suggest his poor performance (on the field) and the injury situation that ultimately kept him off. I assure you there is no backstory to Sam McGuffie not playing the final five games. He suffered an ankle injury and that’s that. I can see how my comment was unclear. But, again, when I said biggest disappointment it was not just based on his stats (on the field) but being hurt and staying hurt and unable to even get back on the field.

If you were giving out a biggest dissapointment “award”, I think it is unfair to mention McGuffie and Eddington. McGuffie was limited by injuries the first couple games, then had a few healthy games, then missed the last 5 with injuries. Doesn’t feel right to say someone was a disappointment because of injury. And for Eddington, he barely had any chances to succeed. I’m not disagreeing with burying him on the depth chart considering he was behind your offensive MVP and your offensive breakout player. For me, the biggest disappointment had to be McHargue. Which is weird because he actually looked quite good early this season. Then he had a couple rough games (not entirely his fault in some instances) and never saw the field again, despite complete offensive inneptness the last 3 games.

One curiousity, it seems like the receivers dropped a lot more passes thrown by McHargue than Fannuzzi (McDonald and Wilson in particular). Any thoughts on why this might have been the case, or am I just making this up?

If you want to talk about a “biggest disappointment award” I don’t think its really fair to consider McGuffie or Eddington. McGuffie was only really fully healthy for a few games this year, and while that is disappointing, it doesn’t make him a disappointment. And the coaching staff never really gave Eddington a chance this year (and can we blame them when he was stuck behind your offensive MVP and offensive breakout player on the depth chart?). My biggest disappointments were McHargue on offense and Porras on defense. Both have lots of talent and both started the season great, but by the end of the year McHargue was on the bench and I was seeing too much of the back of Porras’s jersey as he chased opposing WR’s down the field after getting burned in coverage. I feel pretty confident the can both bounce back in 2012, hopefully with the aid of better position coaches at those positions!

I hate to take a swipe at Rice, but the biggest dissapointment was not McGuffie, Fanuzzi or Coach Baliff. The biggest dissapointment was you, Rice fans, students, faculty and alumns. I sat at the U of H game and counted, maybe 500 fans in the Rice section…maybe. Lame lack of support results in lame play. How can anyone take Rice football serious if its own family doesn’t?